[StBernard] St. Bernard officials' exodus goes on

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri Jul 14 22:43:04 EDT 2006


Friday, July 14, 2006

By Karen Turni Bazile

Adding to a mounting list of departures, two more top St. Bernard Parish
administrators have told Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez that they
are quitting their posts.

Finance Director Geremie Loupe and Community Development Director Mike
Hunnicutt bring to four the number of department heads to resign since
Hurricane Katrina. Rodriquez has six top directors in all.

Chief Administrative Officer Danny Menesses left in April and Public Works
Director Clyde Martin resigned in February. Both cited burnout because of
extremely long hours needed for the recovery effort since the storm.

Loupe, who has overseen the parish's finances for about three years, said he
is leaving to work with his wife's design and construction business.
Hunnicutt, said he is leaving because he disagrees with recent changes
Rodriguez made in issuing building permits. He has worked in the department
for 16 years.
Loupe's last day is July 21; Hunnicutt's is July 27.

Rodriguez told the council at an executive-finance committee meeting
Thursday that he doesn't expect to fill the vacant positions, mostly because
he has only 18 months left in his term. Instead, he will shift the
directors' duties to existing staff members.
Although Loupe resigned quietly before a vacation a few weeks ago, Hunnicutt
fired off a passionate memo that he delivered to Rodriguez on Wednesday and
distributed to all the council members.

The parish's six department heads, as well as a few other key administrative
positions, are not protected under civil service and serve at the pleasure
of Rodriguez.
Rodriguez has said he knows the disaster recovery effort has taken a toll on
his managers. And he said he knows Hunnicutt was not satisfied when he
ordered that his department be divided in two in mid-May, creating the
Office of Rebuilding and Reconstruction to handle permits for repairs of
residential and commercial properties.
Hunnicutt issued a memo on Monday to administrators and council members
citing his concerns about how the divided department was functioning.

In the memo, Hunnicutt said he was revoking new construction permits for 14
addresses because he hadn't signed the documents or because there were
problems with them.

While some of the permits had minor errors that could be fixed, Hunnicutt
said there were at least two errors that were serious and could have
resulted in structures being elevated to the wrong height.

Acting Chief Administrative Officer Dave Peralta said those permits were
corrected and wouldn't be revoked. An employee in Hayes' office is signing
those permits that are being reviewed by Hunnicutt, Peralta said.

Peralta said the confusion was part of the transition to two offices.
Rodriguez said both Loupe and Hunnicutt have done a good job, but that he
believes it was critical to separate the offices under Hunnicutt to expedite
building permits.





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